Artificial Intelligence in customer interactions: factors influencing value creation and sustained use in a variety of contexts (e.g., healthcare and financial services)

As we enter the fourth industrial revolution, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used by more and more organisations - profit-seeking and otherwise – to automate processes in more and more business areas, and with increasing autonomy. For instance, AI is being deployed in the context of mental health to monitor patient well-being; in the context of financial services to monitor market performance and make investments; in the context of customer service to handle customer queries and make recommendations, or in the context of personal transportation to self-drive cars.

For AI applications to be successful, however, it is necessary that customers are willing to interact with the technology, perceive that it addresses their needs, and continue to use the technology beyond initial adoption and experimentation. This doctoral project seeks to investigate how, why and to what extent AI can deliver a positive customer experience, and lead to sustained creation of value for customers, in a variety of contexts (e.g., healthcare and financial services).

The project will require the candidate to look beyond the technical dimensions of AI to also consider social and individual issues. As such, it will be necessary to consult and to integrate, as relevant, various streams of literature such as information systems, marketing and psychology. The empirical setting for the project is flexible and may include commercial, governmental or not-for-profit applications. The research design will require the use of mixed methods, including in-depth interviews, observations, and experiments or surveys.